Earlier today writer/producer Ronald D. Moore participated in a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" to promote his upcoming time-travel in Scotland show "Outlander" (premiering on Starz August 9th). While there he answered a number of questions about his time working on Star Trek as well as his thoughts on the future of the franchise (and his possible participation in that future). He also talked about some projects he has considered taking on, including rebooting Space: 1999. See below for some of the most interesting exchanges.

The following excerpts are from the July 29, 2014 Reddit "Ask Me Anything" discussion with Ronald D. Moore. The excerpts of the questions and answers are taken ‘as is’ including any spelling or grammar errors. Note: Above image is of Ron Moore wearing kilt at "Outlander" panel at Comic-Con 2014.

gjcbs: Any chance you would return to write/produce any new TV series in either the BSG or Trek universe?

Ron-Moore: Probably not BSG, because that’s probably done. Trek would be fun to return to one day, but hard to see how you get form here to there.

FancySack: If you could create your own Star Trek TV series, what would you incorporate in terms of timeline, settings, and characters?

Ron-Moore: If i had that answer, I’d be a very, very rich man.

spankingasupermodel: …What are your thoughts on a potential future Trek series? What mistakes that they made in ENT should they avoid? Do you think they should continue to rely on the past as the recent films have or carve out a new story, perhaps set a couple of hundred years after where we left off in the 24th Century?

Ron-Moore: I think there’s a lot of ways you could take a new series. It’s an incredibly flexible format. Gene created something that could take you anywhere in a variety of styles. I think it would be interesting to do another series that is not based on a starship, like Deep Space Nine. But there’s many possibilities for other ship-based shows as well.

vore9000: A lot of people kick around the idea of the next Star Trek series being delivered via Netflix much like House of Cards and Orange is the new Black. Aside from the obvious issues with CBS. What do you think of this idea for Star Trek. And more broadly how do you see this format for TV developing?

Ron-Moore: I think that would be a great idea. It seems to me that Netflix & networks like that provide a very broad, open way of doing television in a different format. It would be wonderful to see a show like Star Trek cast in that realm where they could literally go where no show has gone before.

[UPDATE]

Zouch: You’ve mentioned in the past that you were a fan of the new J.J. Trek films. If you were the one writing the third Trek reboot movie, what would you personally like to see from the original series re-imagined for this one?

Ron-Moore: I think it would be fun to go to the Mirror universe in the re-boot. It was always fun to go there again on Deep Space 9, and it’s always a great chance to see familiar beloved characters turn out to be evil.

Ron Moore thinks a new Star Trek series doesn’t need to be based on a ship and that Netflix could be a future home for Trek

Ron Moore talks about his time with Star Trek

xhotxwater: How did you end up writing for Star Trek?

Ron-Moore: I was a Star Trek fan growing up in the 1970’s. I was in Los Angeles trying to be a writer in 1989, got lucky enough to get on a set tour, brought a spec script with me, convinced the guy giving me the tour to read it – I’ll tell you the full story – he turned out to be one of Gene Roddenberry’s assistants, and gave it to my first agent. She submitted it to the show, it sat in the slush pile for 7 months, new executive producer Michael Piller came aboard beginning of the 3rd season, went through the slush pile, found my script, bought it, asked me to do a second one, and then after that brought me on as a staff writer, and I was there the next 10 years. It was an incredibly lucky break, I was in the right place at the right time, and it changed my life.

robinsky1: What is your favourite memory of working on Star Trek : The Next Generation?

Ron-Moore: Hard to pin it down to one particular moment. Off the top of my head, meeting Stephen Hawking, seeing my first episode being shot, watching the last episode get shot, and getting to walk the Corridors of the Enterprise anytime I felt like it.

mcrae_1982: Just for fun, were there any actors you had in mind for a role that didn’t pan out or decided to go in another direction? I know, for example that David Warner was the first choice for Akorem Laan, and Martin Sheen was considered for Sloane.

Ron-Moore: There was an interesting moment in time where Paramount actually pitched us the idea of having Marlon Brando play Soren in Generations (The movie). None of us knew what to make of that idea, but we were more than willing to give it a shot, but it never went anywhere.

Ron Moore says the idea of Marlon Brando playing Soren in "Star Trek: Generations" was pitched by Paramount but didn’t go anywhere

josephgordonreddit: I read that you were chastised by Rick Berman for making DS9 into such a dark show (for lack of a better term, ‘space opera’), though in hindsight, DS9 has turned into a prescient show with regards to terrorism, war, and all the moral gray in between.
BSG was pretty similar in regards to its tone: very heavy emotionally with repercussions for all actions. I guess my question is what motivated you to write about such heavy, often gruesome topics (torture in BSG, terrorism in both DS9 and BSG, war crimes, etc. etc. etc.) in a time when it wasn’t really ‘standard?’

Ron-Moore: I always felt that science fiction was an opportunity to explore important ideas in society, so a lot of those ideas tended to be dark & troubling ones with difficult moral & ethical choices at its heart. I took the opportunity whenever possible to ask hard questions of the characters, to make the audience think about what was right & what was wrong, whether it was on Trek or BSG.

ServerOfJustice: Marc Alaimo brought a lot of charisma to his role as Dukat and many Trek fans began to sympathize with him. As Dukat is a genocidal fascist, it’s understandable why the writers were put off by this and took the character in another direction. After "Sacrifice of Angels" his character seems to become a cartoonish super-villain rather than a complicated villain. I don’t think I’m alone in feeling unsatisfied with how his story played out. I’m not a writer but it seems as though Damar’s redemption was a plot that could have been perfectly laid out for Dukat instead. More than a decade and half removed, are you satisfied with Dukat’s character development over the final season and a half of the series? Is there anything you would change if given the opportunity?

Ron-Moore: I think we were all pleased with where we took Dukat, it felt like it was organic based on where the character began, who he was in the past and in the present, so I don’t think we have any regrets.

JustPlainSimpleGarak: Throughout your career, who was the most challenging character to write for? And who was your favorite character to write for?

Ron-Moore: It’s tricky to write for Q in Star Trek because he was an omnipotent being with complete control of the universe, and figuring out how to make him "Human" was a bit of a challenge. On BSG, I always particular enjoyed writing for Baltar, I thought he was the most human character in the entire series.

[UPDATE]

Zouch: During your time with Trek, you got a chance to work directly with Ira Behr and Brannon Braga (who, I know, you had a falling out with). How would you say writing with them over the course of three different forms of Trek changed the way you wrote in a sci-fi sense? Were there any ideas that either of them had that you wish you penned first?

Ron-Moore: Ira & Brannon were two VERY different people. Brannon and I were both young and just starting out, and we just got to hang out together and play. And Ira was more of a mentor, and someone who taught me my craft as a writer and as a producer. Brannon always had really out of the box wild ideas that I was always a bit jealous of, and Ira had a deep insight into character that I was always really jealous of, so between the two of them they always inspired me to stretch in different directions.

gjcbs: Do you still stay in touch with Ira and Michael Taylor?

Ron-Moore: I work with Ira currently on Outlander, which has been a treat! And I worked with Michael on BSG.

Ron Moore wrote one of the most memorable TNG Q episodes "Tapestry" – gut says writing for Q was "tricky" and a "challenge"

Moore on other potential/defunct projects

Wallynbp1: I read you were working on a reboot of the movie A Knight’s Tale, as far as I know, there has been further news. Is it still on the table or was it just a good idea whose time has past?

Ron-Moore: It’s still on the table, there’s nothing happening currently but it’s one of those fun kind of projects that could come back at some point.

Shahe_B: Is the BSG movie going to happen? Will you be apart of it?

Ron-Moore: I have nothing to do with that project, which I understand is under the control of Glenn Larson.

[NOTE: Latest news on BSG movie was when writer was hired in April to pen a "complete reimagining"]

gjcbs: What do you have in mind for I, Robot 2?

Ron-Moore: I did a draft of I, Robot 2 YEARS ago, and it’s as far as I know just sitting in a pile someplace, so I don’t really have any ideas for it and I haven’t heard that it’s in active development.

conor_h 5: Would you consider remaking another sci-fi program? I’m think of one of the British sci-fi programs from the 70/80’s (Blakes 7 etc.) or the short lived American program Space: Above and Beyond from the 90’s?

Ron-Moore: I thought about Space:1999 but it was such an insane premise I had no idea what to do with it. But there was something appealing about doing something so outrageous at the same time.

[NOTE: ITV Studios announced a reboot of Space 1999 called Space 2999 in 2012, but as of May of this year they were still trying to find distribution partners.]

UFO is basically just another alien invasion story and we had those a lot lately, both on the big screen and on TV…

Space 1999 on the other hand is my favourite show of all times (Season 1 at least)… I don’t know whether a remake would work. It lived from being so 70s… the score, the costumes, everything. It was what I wanted Star Trek – Phase 2 to be and only a small portion of that got realized via TMP…

The 70s are still my favourite SciFi era and it’s a pity there was hardly any new Star Trek around. The 10s of this century could be a great era for ScFi, too, but again… not enough Star Trek around! One movie every three or four years is hardly enough to set up the specific style of an era… CBS / Paramount are once again wasting an entire decade of potential greatness… with Avatar, new Star Wars, Guardians of the Galaxy and many more franchises at hand… Star Trek is still taking a nap… time to wake up, before the decade ends!

Yes you could base a Star Trek series on a fixed space station, and you could also give Spock a girlfriend. Neither is really what Roddenberry had in mind.

Now that we have transwarp beaming, why not base the series on Earth, and have them beam wherever they want to explore? No ships at all. That would save a lot of money in production costs, but it wouldn’t be Trek.

Seriously, DS9 was fine as a secondary offering to TNG, but they can’t bring Trek back to TV without ships. I never got into DS9, but when I did watch it, it seemed like a good show. However, they always seemed to be itching to get off that space station, and ultimately created a lot of convoluted stories to do it. It would be like if the coast guard headquarters administrative personnel were always going off to other countries to conduct missions.

Curious Cadet – Roddenberry gave Spock a girlfriend in Nurse Chapel and also a wife(Amok Time). He just didn’t make it Uhura. You could easily do a spacestaion based series – think NCIS or Criminal Minds where that is the home base but they go where needed to do whatever. Just because you are set on the spacestation doesn’t mean you need to stay on the spacestation. And I find it funny that you don’t like Spock having a girlfriend but you are all over hte idea of transwarp beaming, an idea Roddenberry considered and shot down for TNG.

I HATE, HATE!!!!! It when fans assume they know what Gene would have done… For all we know he could have changed it beyond all recognition had he lived to see it develop further. All we can do is listen to the interviews he gave and the changes he himself made to Star Trek. If fans actually listened to Gene Roddenberry and actually took onboard the changes HE made to this franchise with TNG then you’d realise that he would have cherished every minute of Abrams Trek or Orci’s Trek, Moores Trek or Bermans Trek or Braga’s Trek or Coto’s Trek because all you have to do is see how he himself changed it during his reign. His belief was that Star Trek continue to be relevant for the world it was made for. It has and will continue to be as such under anyone who takes it on as they will be informed by current affairs in the real world. Like Denny Crane, he may have his name on the door and built Star Trek but it’s bigger than him now, He’s been dead for 23 years!!!!!! Lets move on! Roddenberry himself was the first to radically change Star Trek back with TNG! Now all of a sudden anyone else who radically changes Star Trek is deemed unfit to take on the mighty legacy Roddenberry left? Come on now.

I wonder how much of DS9 was attributable to Moore and how much to Behr? Was Moore in charge of the creative direction and writing, like Piller was on TNG, whereas Behr was in charge of all of the production side of it like Berman on TNG?

I’d love to see Ronald D. Moore take over Trek, hire all of the producers and writers, and run the franchise properly and like it deserves to be run.

It’s a bit funny seeing people refer to criticisms of DS9 as overly dark back in the 90s. Moore’s BSG makes DS9 look very mild.

Space: 1999 started out as a second season of “UFO” based mostly (entirely?) on the Moonbase. Eventually, the link to “UFO’ was abandoned and it became a standalone show.

Space: 1999’s premise was laughable even in 1975. There is no way to make the “moon leaves our solar system” concept work without howlingly bad science (they tried to explain it went through a wormhole, which helps only a little, and even that episode was pushed back until late in the show’s out-of-sequence first season.) If I were to reimagine the show (“Space: 2029”) I’d set it up as a cross between Stargate and 2001: A Space Odyssey. Earth has established its first base on the moon, and explorers find something that turns out to be a portal to other worlds. Throw in some sort of cataclysm like an asteroid decimating Earth so the Moonbase Alpha crew is alone and must now risk using the portal to survive…

“UFO” could actually be rebooted pretty well, I think. The idea of a secret international defense organization against aliens is still pretty cool. If the original extremely campy Battlestar Galactica could be reimagined as something serious, UFO would be a much easier project. The concept of such organization masquerading as a movie studio seems less far-fetched in the wake of “Argo”.

I’m with Harry here. If there was ever a genre series that could and should get a proper and well-done reboot, it’s Space:1999. I understand that it was a pretty expensive and ambitious endeavor in it’s day, but it still was was it was: a post-Trek, pre-Star Wars British TV show. A steady hand at the wheel with a good team behind them could create something to behold, as long as they stay fairly true to the premise, characters, etc, as was done with BSG.

I have been reading about Space: 2999 for about 5 years now. I would LOVE to see some ideas. I think it could be done. Getting the moon out of orbit is not the only path. But, the idea of mankind thrust into the universe badly unprepared is a very very tempting one. I had hopes that that was the route Enterprise would go, but even in the pilot, they copped out and “invented” most of the gimmicks/tech of TOS. So, how was that a prequel????

OK, Since I KNOW Ron Moore is reading this, here are some ideas for Space: 2999:

a) Moonbase Alpha is the first and largest joint-nation military base on the moon, but far from the only base. There are smaller civilian/corporate ones and some from factional nation alliances.

b) Alpha scientists have created an unstable gateway to distant parts of our “galactic neighborhood.” (NO F@#$ing metaverse!!!) For this reason, TPTB on Earth have declared the moon under quarantine. It is rigidly enforced, including space battles between the main alliance and other interested parties. Resources are therefor limited on the moon, but no one is in danger of starving.

c) Early stories should establish that manking is woefully unprepared for coping with a dangerous universe. Sometimes, warships return through the gateway (this concept needs work; to differentiate it from Stargate) or human tech misbehaves in certain regions of space, near quasars, x-ray suns, etc.

d) The instability of the gateway makes colonization dicey at best. But, there may be times when Earth attempts it. This would mean rushing tens of thousands of humans to one spot in a limited time. Some aliens may also get “trapped” on the moon.

e) It would be interesting to see the economics of a solar system-based humanity just reaching the stars.

8 Curious, There’s a difference, and that is that Starfleet, in the case of DS9, is acting more like a US Naval detachment [assuming we make the Federation and US interests equivalent], so, yes,they would be able to go out and defend Bajor and the Alpha Quadrant, i.e., Federation interests. The Bajoran admin and ops personnel on DS9 are more equivalent to a Bajoran CG, because they are guarding Bajoran sovereign space. [So it is odd that Major Kira went along on some Defiance missions, when rightly, she should have been in command of DS9 at those times. One exception would be if the Defiance were defending Bajor directly; she’d be a liaison. And once they were involved in the Dominion Wars, I believe the Bajorans, being members of the Federation, joined the Federation Starfleet in military action, so it was appropriate.] 10 TrekRules and 14 Thorny, I appreciate your saying this, although I think some fans are fine with Spock having “a girl” whom he rejects or leaves behind [and to be fair, TrekRules, Chapel had, ugh, an ‘unrequited love’ for Spock], as opposed to NUhura who is not among the rejected. [And I think among those fans are some who think NUhura’s ‘cockblocking’ an intimate K/S relationship.] The irony is, Roddenberry was setting in place the seeds for a Spock/Uhura relationship in TOS [witness “The Man Trap” and “Charlie X”], but that was considered wayyy too far out in the racist days of the 1960s. Studio heads objected… Read more »

Alpha could also fall through its own gateway, which again is a dicey bit of technology, and could continue to fall through into troubled situations. If they’re caught in a gravity well, then the clock is running. It would eliminate the “we gotta get everything done in three days” aspect of the original show, and allow for some multi-episode arcs involving tough decisions with new civilizations.
The gateway would spare us the idea of nuclear waste building up a new kind of magnetic energy and going boom. But, the rest of everything would still hold.

#10 Trek Rules Yes, Spock was seen to have a number of relationships in the show, explicitly with Leila, a “should have been wife,” and the unrequited bond Christine felt for him. However, if you watch early episodes of the series, you could picture a deeper bond between Spock and Uhura than was shown on-screen. We see Spock allow Uhura to play his Vulcan harp and, on one occasion, accompanies her on the harp while she sings. He even has an expression, almost smiling, as the two interplay. And, as has been reported in other articles and behind-the-scenes info, the first interracial kiss was actually supposed to be between Spock and Uhura. When Shatner found out this “groundbreaking” event was to occur without him, he demanded that the script be changed so he would be the one involved. So when people think this relationship between Uhura and Spock is so out of place, I simply think that for a quirk of scripting and a bit of Shatner’s ego, we might have seen larger hints of a Uhura-Spock bond. And that’s the cool thing about Trek; really, only limited imaginations have a hard time picturing how things could happen or may happen… As far as shows to reboot… I, too, would love to see a Space: 1999 reboot. Yes, the premise was a bit far fetched…. but I think if you narrowed the scope a bit it could work. Why would it have to be the moon? How about a long… Read more »

Alpha is in occassional contact with Earth, which has gone to poo thanks to a destabilization of the seasonal pivot caused by the moon’s absence. Now, Alpha must get the moon back in orbit to save Mankind… and to do this, they have to grab all the alien tech they can!! Oh, and survive!

#20 Marja
“The irony is, Roddenberry was setting in place the seeds for a Spock/Uhura relationship in TOS [witness “The Man Trap” and “Charlie X”], but that was considered wayyy too far out in the racist days of the 1960s.”

I agree on the racist days but I saw a lot more set-up in the works by GR for Kirk/Uhura than Spock/Uhura. Maybe it is in the eye of the beholder.

Ron Moore great writer and i am sure he would do a great new star trek program however i would love to see new blood on board,i feel the people being continuum would do a brilliant job

#20
if my memory is correct it was meant from get go to be kirk and uhura but then was changed thankfully it was changed back,shatner made sure the other takes could not be used or have time to change the couples, i alway love they go on about this episode however no one seem to mention Elaan of Troyius which was filmed before Plato’s Stepchildren however as we know shown afterwood that has the kiss as well

Triskelion (might be spelling it wrong), Sure Kirk should have taken the beating (combat) instead of his (female) crew member but that entire episode was somewhat sensual or had implied innuendos if one so choses to fantasize – not so much for K and U getting together but for their concern for each other. As she was fending off Lars–Kirk was not so professional in his anguish. Uhura seemed more concerned about Kirk than she was Chekov but then–Kirk was the star so might not count.

Tholian Web – Uhura sees the Captain first, he appears in her quarters. She collapses with anguish. She is very upset in sickbay about him.

In Man Trap, I interpreted it that Uhura just enjoyed goading Spock about the lack of Vulcan moon while they had nothing better to do.

In Charlie X, I thought they enjoyed making music together but thought it was not “romantic.” I thought, “good comrades.”

Your “clues” aren’t any better than mine and vise versa. :-)

“Mirror” does count, not just the sexist dialogue of “Captain, I’m frightened,” but they way he takes her by her shoulders and says she is the only one that can do it, works his magic charm on her personally, I do believe. It seemed a hint of something there.

26. Agreed! I sat through many a bad script with many bad actors just to watch the Eagles on “Space: 1999” when I was a kid. If they relaunch, do only minor tweaks, a’la the Vipers of BSG. No uglification of them like the Abrams-verse Enterprise, please.

Space: 1999 reboot could be “Space 2099.” The premise: A neutron star passes through the solar system near earth and, due to its immense gravity, whips the moon out of earth’s orbit along the plane of the ecliptic. The moon immediately falls into a worm hole and the survivors of Moonbase Alpha find that space is actually FILLED with wormholes – they’re everywhere! The result is the moon falling onto a wormhole whenever a new “planet of the week” is required for story-telling purposes. There you go Mr. Moore – no charge. Please keep in mind the part about humanity being totally unprepared for deep space – that’s what makes the stories cool: ordinary humans – pretty much like us – in extraordinary circumstances.

Ron Moore is clearly brilliant. BSG was a masterpiece. However,
the long hair & kilt is kind of an overdone affectation but he’s so wealthy and respect for his writing is so high I’m sure people just ignore it for the most part to hear his ideas and work with him. He’s at a point where he can look anyway he wants. I do wonder if he sometimes gets tired of putting all that work into maintaining an avant-garde look.
I’m sure he know what he’s doing with that look and what doors it opens. Honestly, that look seems like a waste of time to me and hope it doesn’t take away energy from his genius creative ideas.
His mind has so much to offer. I thought Caprica was great. We need intelligent shows like that on may levels.

CBS isn’t going to outsource a new Star Trek series to Netflix. Even if they did, CBS would demand sky-high royalties/fees so that Netflix would have to sell the series to customers apart from the regular package just to make enough money for production.

Then there’s the prospect of a potential Disney/Netflix joint venture. Disney could end up profiting from Star Trek, and no way would CBS would ever sit by and let that happen.

@20. Marja,
“The irony is, Roddenberry was setting in place the seeds for a Spock/Uhura relationship in TOS [witness “The Man Trap” and “Charlie X”], but that was considered wayyy too far out”

I think there’s more to it than that. Just like they realized they had to get rid of Janice Rand as Kirk’s pretty yeoman to prevent a shipboard relationship from developing, they realized Spock couldn’t either. It really was Kirk & Spock, and eventually McCoy. A girlfriend in there anywhere for any of them would have ruined what the series became. Kirk had many romantic liaisons, and his history was rife with girlfriends. Nobody ever said Spock went through life celibate, but he was intentionally kept single. As was McCoy. All were given pasts with significant others, but none were given active, on-going relationships, they were always ended whenever explored.

So whatever anyone thinks about the NuSpock/Uhura relationship, it is most definitely not something that was part of TOS, and was seemingly intentionally avoided by all concerned at the time. If Abrams Trek is supposed to be reflective of the original, they are taking great liberties with it in the new film, and arguably doing significant damage as well with the romance. It’s just not what TOS was about.

Honestly, what does the S/U relationship get us? It’s an interesting alt universe exploration, but what’s the payoff, how does it make the movies more authentic to Star Trek?

Space 1999 benefited from having an extremely accomplished actor in Martin Landau in the central role. As with TNG and Patrick Stewart, his ability lifted what was at times pretty mediocre stories and writing.

And i’d be prepared to suspend belief and watch the Moon being sent out of Earth’s orbit somehow. That would look great on screen with current technology.
This time i’d like to see how it affected Earth and its population though. We didn’t see any of that in the original show.
And one other thing, the Eagle must stay looking exactly how it did back then. They were a great ship!

I agree wholeheartedly. I avoided re-stating what always brings down wrath upon me. Perhaps I never said it as clearly as you did here. Anyway, you are right, it was obvious as TOS evolved. And, it does change what Star Trek is all about and goes against characterization.

If someone likes that huge change, then give it another title, give characters other names, and start your own universe. You needn’t mention to anyone that you were originally inspired to do so by Star Trek, go for it!

But Star Trek earned its stripes as Star Trek. It is such an amazing phenomenon because it is what it is. It therefore “owns” its universe.

@46 IDIC lives! “And, it does change what Star Trek is all about and goes against characterization.” I think it does. And don’t get me wrong, any one of them could have been changed to female and the formula would have worked. I think making Starbuck a woman in BSG was a brilliant move, as long as the relationships don’t change. But think about this, Roddenberry never created a shipboard romance. Even in TNG. Characters always had a rich background of relationships and affairs, but none were depicted on screen. In fact Roddenberry seemed to love to have regular characters with an implied relationship in their past. Decker and Ilia, Riker & Troi, Picard and Crusher, etc. One could argue that on-screen romances didn’t start showing up until Roddenberry was out of the Picture. This is NOT a case of WWGRD? But rather what he did. I’m not suggesting Star Trek can’t change, but if it does, then there had better be a good reason for it that improves the characters that made Star Trek the success it became. So I have to ask, how does the Spock/Uhura relationship improve the original formula? From my perspective we don’t learn anything more about either of them by watching an active relationship in front of us, and It changes the Spock character dramatically (to be fair it’s not just the relationship). Which is why I can confidently say, this is NOT Star Trek. It also takes away screen time from developing other… Read more »

#47 Curious Cadet I agree! And yes, the Uhura relationship is not the only change in Spock. Spock is not Spock now, and yet until STID and the 2009 reboot, he was Spock. How many films, how many episodes, how many novels, how many written stories? The change does not help the character Spock, no. He is less Spock and more what he loathed or at least could not understand. Vulcan had/has a worthy, highly intelligent way of being, it is bred into their people as much as being human is bred into us throughout long ages of existence. How dare nuTrek just—never mind. The collective human consciousness adds things to its “legend, myth, archetype, iconic creations” as our species evolves. Shakespeare’s Hamlet was and is Hamlet. The Greek god Zeus is Zeus, it means a character who has earned his/her stripes, merits, and is stable, solid, in our collective consciousness. He or she is GREAT in our collective consciousness and might well be immortal. We hapless modern humans do not have Shakespeare or the gods, but we have our legends, our icons, and they are cemented in our collective consciousness. They give us worth, inspiration, we identify with them so we can face to the world, and they are our heroes so the world is not so dark (Ebola, anyone?). We NEED this stability and inspiration in our minds and spirits. Spock is this and has been. He IS. Kirk has also been changed in nuTrek with no benefit.… Read more »